Ball of Nothing

After escaping Truen's watchful eyes, Zero was excited to have his own adventure. He felt slightly apologetic for Mii, Lily and Wii in his mindscape going crazy after he overrode the system and shut their connection away. Zero had the map pulled out and his heart raced. This was his very first experience about a man's romance with death as Amon put it. While Zero was certain he wasn't going to die or see the grim reaper, he wanted to feel the thrill of going against danger.

The dungeon seemed strange. Like Sleepy Cave, the dungeon was full of monsters that made up part of this dungeon's ecosystem. It had different levels and the one they found and broke in earlier was a mid-level dungeon.

If there were already bedrocks near the middle level, would that mean Zero had a chance of finding that desert poppy around this level without needing to venture too deeply? These monsters stood no chance against Zero and easily became his food. He could absorb them into his void inventory and store them away for dismantling later. Seeing as there wasn't air in his inventory, the monsters would die after a while. Zero didn't feel too sorry for them, he just wanted to quickly be over with this. The dungeon absorbed mana to regenerate and expand so Zero was going with the no-magic route. Keeping Truen, Bob and Jermine out was a good idea.

According to the map, he was halfway down the dungeon and Zero wondered if the dungeon was trying to eat him. They had lost more than they gained so far and Zero was feeling triumphant. These scorpions were not challenging and in his overconfidence, Zero failed to realise the traps around him. Dark vision only worked within a certain radius so Zero didn't see the eight-legged shadows moving around in the dark. These creatures worked without slipping up as Zero ran past them, not knowing that they had him in the middle of the main room and walking in a maze.

After a few minutes, Zero stopped. It was odd. "Where's the entrance to the lower caverns?"

Now that he stopped running around, Zero stayed very quiet and stopped breathing altogether to listen. He might not be an experienced warrior on the battlefield but Zero could feel it, that creeping sensation across his skin. Something told him that he wasn't alone in the dark.

YY Tonfas came into view again and Zero closed his eyes to listen. At first, nothing sounded out of the ordinary. He was far enough from the camp where Truen was so Zero couldn't hear them now. However, the scuttling sounds from countless feet all over made Zero confirm his theory. There were guests and they were not the welcomed kind.

Funnily enough, these guests were not appearing on the mini-map and Zero frowned. They sounded like they were in the thousands and very close to him. Why wasn't he seeing them yet? This was starting to get dangerous. Reluctantly, Zero unblocked the communication to his mindscape assistants. He had questions that needed answering. Merlin and Hua Tuo were right, knowledge was true power.

"Mii...?"

Instead of feeling relieved, the strawcherry fairy decided to ignore Zero. Instead, her eggplant fairy sister answered.

"Yes, master? What happened? We couldn't contact you or Truen for a while. Is everything alright?"

Zero felt bad for blocking the fairies out. The adventure of a true man would have to wait this time. His enemies were plenty but he was one. Yet, the mini-map couldn't pick them out. Where were these attackers hiding?

"I have a question," he got straight to the point. "What does it mean if I hear the enemies but cannot see them on the mini-map?"

Lily frowned and exchanged a worried glance with Mii who froze. Wii didn't know how to answer the question and Mii rushed to the control room to look at the settings of the system while Lily searched the handbook. This shouldn't be happening but if it did, that would mean Zero was up against a very nasty opponent.

"Found it!" the flower fairy exclaimed and all three fairies crowded over the handbook.

"What does it say?" Mii demanded and Wii read it quickly.

"Enemies present who do not appear on the minimap may be using a concealing skill effect to not appear on the radar of their enemies when the skill is active. If the perception level is high enough, this can be negated and they will still appear on the minimap. Another case when something does not appear on the mini-map would mean that they do not exist on the same plane level."

"Zero, what do the enemies sound like?" Mii asked and Wii quickly got to her room, ready for combat. The eggplant fairy also took this opportunity to send reports back to Truen and check on their situation outside of the dungeon.

After hearing how Zero described the enemies, Mii quickly filtered her search in the massive library to narrow down the possibilities but Wii was more anxious after knowing how the enemies weren't ghosts. Scuttling feet in all directions in a dungeon would mean one of few things. Zero was either surrounded by many enemies by now who had the invisible detection skill or he was currently under a very complicated illusion spell made to confuse Zero where the real enemy was. For an enemy to be this skilled, Wii didn't know what their chances of winning in a mana hungry dungeon would be.

Zero got into a combat stance. He was surrounded, he could feel it. If they were invisible on the mini-map and far enough to escape his dark vision, Zero should surely see them if he threw up a surprise light flare, right?

With the ace in his hands, Zero concentrated and prepared for a light flare but not the kind made from magic seeing as the dungeon wanted him to use mana. Zero had other options, it was time to see the result of his cultivation.